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>Chapter 41. PL/Perl - Perl Procedural Language</H1
><DIV
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><DL
><DT
><B
>Table of Contents</B
></DT
><DT
>41.1. <A
HREF="plperl-funcs.html"
>PL/Perl Functions and Arguments</A
></DT
><DT
>41.2. <A
HREF="plperl-data.html"
>Data Values in PL/Perl</A
></DT
><DT
>41.3. <A
HREF="plperl-builtins.html"
>Built-in Functions</A
></DT
><DD
><DL
><DT
>41.3.1. <A
HREF="plperl-builtins.html#PLPERL-DATABASE"
>Database Access from PL/Perl</A
></DT
><DT
>41.3.2. <A
HREF="plperl-builtins.html#PLPERL-UTILITY-FUNCTIONS"
>Utility Functions in PL/Perl</A
></DT
></DL
></DD
><DT
>41.4. <A
HREF="plperl-global.html"
>Global Values in PL/Perl</A
></DT
><DT
>41.5. <A
HREF="plperl-trusted.html"
>Trusted and Untrusted PL/Perl</A
></DT
><DT
>41.6. <A
HREF="plperl-triggers.html"
>PL/Perl Triggers</A
></DT
><DT
>41.7. <A
HREF="plperl-under-the-hood.html"
>PL/Perl Under the Hood</A
></DT
><DD
><DL
><DT
>41.7.1. <A
HREF="plperl-under-the-hood.html#PLPERL-CONFIG"
>Configuration</A
></DT
><DT
>41.7.2. <A
HREF="plperl-under-the-hood.html#PLPERL-MISSING"
>Limitations and Missing Features</A
></DT
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><P
>   PL/Perl is a loadable procedural language that enables you to write
   <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>PostgreSQL</SPAN
> functions in the
   <A
HREF="http://www.perl.org"
TARGET="_top"
>Perl programming language</A
>.
  </P
><P
>   The main advantage to using PL/Perl is that this allows use,
   within stored functions, of the manyfold <SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"string
   munging"</SPAN
> operators and functions available for Perl.  Parsing
   complex strings might be easier using Perl than it is with the
   string functions and control structures provided in PL/pgSQL.
  </P
><P
>   To install PL/Perl in a particular database, use
   <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>CREATE EXTENSION plperl</TT
>, or from the shell command line use
   <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>createlang plperl <TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>dbname</I
></TT
></TT
>.
  </P
><DIV
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><BLOCKQUOTE
CLASS="TIP"
><P
><B
>Tip: </B
>    If a language is installed into <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>template1</TT
>, all subsequently
    created databases will have the language installed automatically.
   </P
></BLOCKQUOTE
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><BLOCKQUOTE
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><P
><B
>Note: </B
>    Users of source packages must specially enable the build of
    PL/Perl during the installation process.  (Refer to <A
HREF="installation.html"
>Chapter 15</A
> for more information.)  Users of
    binary packages might find PL/Perl in a separate subpackage.
   </P
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